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My Car Peed on the Floor

Posted 03-06-2009 at 03:44 PM by 911URGE
Having owned my C4 for about 3 yrs now I have had minimal issues. A/C being the most fixed item on my car.

Anyway, I noticed I was a little low on oil last Friday so I decided to top her up since I had been running around town most of the day and she was good and warm. She burns about 1/2 quart every 1k miles so it was time. I went through the normal oil add procedure, shut down the car and thought I smelled a bit of burning oil. A glance around revealed nothing so I figured I spilled a little during the fill.

The next morning being Saturday I thought I would go for an early morning drive to the local mountains. I fired her up and thought I would check around the car since I smelled burning oil the night before. DAMN - she peed oil on the ground, about 1/3 to 1/2 quart in the area of the oil tank. So much for the fun run.

I looked under the oil drain plug and noticed it was quite wet and oil caked. She has been oozing for sometime and I missed it. I could not see a location of the leak so I pulled off the shark fin and the thermostat was just covered in oil but I could not see a definitive location of a leak. In looking around I noticed the lower rocker appeared wet almost half way up. Oh no!! I pulled off the lower rocker, of course I broke 4 of the 6 clips, and the hard lines were dry.

I jacked up that side of the car, pulled off the rear tire and power washed the thermostat area clean put the tire back on and went for a drive to heat up the car. Upon return the leak had revealed itself. I have two oil lines leaking. The small line from the thermostat to the oil tank is leaking at the upper portion. Great thats a $20 hose. There is another line leaking though and it turns out its the line from the thermoststat to the oil filter console. Ok, thats gonna cost some $$. That line was wet from the thermostat all the way up into the wheel well.

Parts ordered and delivered and Ill tackle this weekend. She did need an oil change and Im converting to Brad Penn 20/50 during the hose change. Apparently, she had to pee oil on the ground to get the attention she wanted.

Parts list:
2 - Oil lines (almost $300 total)
2 - Crush washers
1 - Oil filter
1 - Case Brad Penn 20/50
12 - Rocker clips (now I have spares)

Ill report back on how it went when Im completed.
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My Car Peed on the Floor - Part Two



So the day started out well. I drove the C4 for about 20 min to get the oil good and hot and started off with draining the oil. So far so good, only a small spill on the floor. I puctured the oil filter with a small phillips screwdriver and tried the trick of blowing compressed air in the hole to help push out more oil - that worked like a champ.

With the oil drained I jacked up the right rear and pulled the tire off to gain access to the lines better. Within 15 min I had the small oil hose off (Thermostat to Oil tank) and well on my way. I get my big crescent wrench out and 5 min later I had the connector off (Thernostats side) the oil line that runs to the filter housing. Sweet, this is going pretty well I thought. SCREEEEEECH, thats where the good times end.

Removing the oil line from the filter console was an excerise in problem solving. The line was frozen solid to the connector. After about 30 min the line finally budges and I realize its not able to swivel. Long story short I had to cut the oil line out. Not with a sharp knife, not with a hacksaw but my damn sawzall. Yes, it took a sawsall to get thru this oil line. So Im able to rotate the fitting another 90 degrees and bam. The curved fitting hits the inner body. Sawsall to the rescue. I cut the line right through the bend in the oil line and its finally off. I had to remove the fitting from the hose by placing it in my vice and use a large pipe wrench and it was still difficult to break free. I still need to put the fitting back onto the filter console.

The new thermostat to filter console line has a larger O.D. than the original so running the line is going to be, oh, well, ummm, a bitch.

In order to route the new line the two additional small oil hoses from the tank have to be removed and they dont let go without a fight. They are too hard/brittle to be reused. I then loosen the oil tank mounts and give myself another 3/4" of space. Now the fun of getting the new line behind the tank and onto the thermostat housing takes about an hour. Its finally on and snugged down and the line is routed appropriately back to the filter console. And here is where I had to stop.

Those two other oil hoses I had to remove are on order since I did not heed the suggestions of others to just replace all those lines. Message heard loud and clear. So she is about 3/4 completed. I still need to connect the line at the filter console and install the new hoses when they arrive. Torque everything down, add oil filter and oil and hope to god she does not leak.

More to come
Posted 03-08-2009 at 11:55 PM by 911URGE 911URGE is offline
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My Car Peed on the Floor - Finished

The rest of the oil lines I failed to order as part of this entire process arrived quickly enough and I got right to work. First thing I discovered is the old hose clamps were pathetic. A quick trip to the local auto parts store yielded the final parts needed for this fiasco.

The only real issue was getting the oil line connected at the filter console. I really needed 1 more hand to hold the line in the correct position but after a little struggle I finally had it connected and torqued down.

So now the moment of truth. I double check everything I touched and decided to get it all back together, add oil and pray.

11 quarts of oil later and 40 minutes tearing up my neighborhood I see no more leaks so I can replace my rocker panels and be done with this chapter of Porsche ownership. Although this project was dirty, frustrating and protracted I still saved money in the long run and I know this aspect of the 964 all to well.

Now about that little power steering drip.....
Posted 03-18-2009 at 04:35 AM by 911URGE 911URGE is offline
 
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